Gateway Canyons Resort to adopt Palisade WSA

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The Bureau of Land Management Grand Junction Field Office (GJFO) and the Gateway Canyons Resort have entered into a partnership intended to enhance the BLM’s ability to meet its management obligations for the Palisade Wilderness Study Area (WSA). The 26,000-acre Palisade WSA lies 50 miles southwest of Grand Junction and near the Gateway Canyons Resort, which is making an initial 2-year commitment to act as public land stewards of the area. The resort is the first organization to formally participate in the GJFO’s Adopt-A-WSA program.

“Gateway Canyons and all of its employees could not be happier. The Palisade Wilderness Study Area dominates our landscape and is not only an important resource for our guests, but a significant resource for the people of Mesa County and Colorado,” John Williams, president of Gateway Canyons Resort stated. “We are pleased to be working with the BLM to preserve this area for good public use.”

The Adopt-A-WSA program, designed to be a tool connecting the public with their public lands, creates partnership opportunities between public land users and the BLM. An extended staff and increased field presence are just a few of the beneficial results of the program. The Adopt-A-WSA program is modeled after the nationally known Adopt-A-Trail program and has similar expectations and responsibilities for both the volunteers and land management agency.

“Through these kinds of invaluable partnerships, the BLM can increase its all-important field presence,” Field Manager Catherine Robertson said. “We will train the Gateway Canyons staff to act as BLM ambassadors to the public and, as these individuals become familiar with the resource, they’ll help to identify project needs for protecting that resource and enhancing visitor experiences.”

Along with the 2-year commitment volunteers will be asked to provide written reports to the BLM on patrol or project work that is performed in the WSA. The BLM is responsible for educating and training the volunteers on Bureau policy issues involved with managing WSAs, as well as facilitating all projects and patrol activities. Through

the Adopt-A-WSA program, volunteers within organizations engage in public land stewardship of specially designated areas having special meaning to them, such as the Palisade WSA. Just as these volunteers will benefit through an enhanced understanding of wilderness resources present in their adopted area, the BLM and the public lands it administers will benefit from the energy and devoted attention of the volunteers.

Just a few of the numerous projects slated to benefit the Palisade WSA through this partnership are:
- Focus patrol during spring antler shed hunting season and for illegal motorized activity
- Clean-up projects in Bull Draw
- Tamarisk control and riparian restoration in Cottonwood Draw and along 4.2 Road
- Identify a safe climbing route up the Palisade, including the approach trail, for analysis in an Environmental Assessment (EA)
- Clean-up project on the camps and mine site at the top of the Palisade
- Sign maintenance
- Inventories of sensitive plants, riparian areas and noxious weeds, along with monitoring and control
- Bird and small mammal surveys
- Monitor WSA boundary and its interior

BLM will conduct an EA for any surface-disturbing activities that may subsequently be proposed within the WSA and not addressed in the Grand Junction Resource Area Resource Management Plan. This process will provide an opportunity for public input. For additional information about BLM’s Adopt-A-WSA program, contact Andy Windsor at (970) 244-3044. Contact Victoria Patsantaras, Gateway Canyons Resort, at (970) 245-6292 for further information on their program in particular.

-BLM-